Fileserver Migration - Paths issue

[Lupaz]

Hi,

 

I'm struggling with the following issue:

I'm about to migrate a file server to an other and want to anticipate to the big deal of repathing all active projects.

If I change the name of the fileserver from, for example, A to B, the projects I'm working on are going to look for content on A instead of B (A\client01\Project01\textureA.jpg)

How could I modify every path for every texture, IES, xrefed model, etc, without getting into the asset tracker and manually change every path?

Unfortunately not all of the content is on the same directory, and I've got at least 70 active files, so...

 

We have Max 8 installed.

 

Tnx a lot!

 

Guido.

[louis.cho]

I think that tools like filemaker pro have that kind option. But it's don't help if you on't have it

[Lupaz]

Hi Louis,

I don't think how filemaker could help.

May be I didn't make myself clear.

What I'm looking for is a way to modify, in 3D Max, texture paths in multiple files in multiple projects.

There has to be a way.

It occurred to me that a way could be editing 3dmax.ini. But this doesn't help either.

 

tnx,

 

Guido.

[Aaron2004]

If I understand your situation correctly, I had a similar problem...forgive me if I'm being ignorant, by the way. I would just change it in Customize-->Configure User Paths...just add the new locations in there. Also, you know when you open up a file and some textures got deleted? You can just change it in that dialog box that comes up.

 

 

Hope it helps,

 

Aaron

[Lupaz]

Aaron, that would be the solution for just one workstation. But when you save that 3d max file and distribute the rendering, the other, say, 30 WS won't find the textures. If i'm not wrong, you need to change every path for every texture on every material, and the simplest way to do this is by the asset tracker. However, when you have 70 files to modify, it becomes a big deal.

 

Anyone with some other thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

Guido.

[Nils Norgren]

We have begun to use the feature "configure user paths". To use it go to customize->Configure User Paths, First point your project (at the top of the interface) then you can point your "Images" path to the location where your files reside I point all the fields to various places in our structure.

 

Once you have added all the paths to all the locations where you have items loaded you can use the asset tracker to strip the paths of everything, this will change "H:/BigProject/Max/Maps/Brick.jpg" to just "Brick.jpg" because the user environment has the path ""H:/BigProject/Max/Maps/" loaded it will check there first when looking for "Brick.jpg".

 

When you have set up the environment to see all the paths properly, save the ".mxp" file in the root of the project. Then when you move the project to a new location, open the ".mxp" file in a text editor, change the "Project" entry to the new location (all the other paths should be relative to this and start with a .../Max/Maps etc.).

 

When you load max, you can load the ".mxp" file and then load the project, it should find all the maps in the new location. When you go to render a project that has maps loaded in this manner you need to load the .mxp file into the backburner interface so that render nodes can resolve the location of the files.

 

BTW. save a file as a copy before stripping the paths to be safe.

 

Good Luck,

 

-Nils

[Lupaz]

Hey Nils, Nice to talk to you. I think I saw you last year at Vismasters. Hope to see you this year too!

 

About your solution (thanks BTW!), I don't get why you get into "configure user paths" and add, manually, all the paths to all the locations where you have items loaded, when you may do the same thing in the asset tracker. This info remains with the scene no matter where you open it (if I'm not mistaken).

Is it, what you are using, a long run solution as opposed to the asset tracker?

We actually do not move projects regularly. This is just an exception.

 

One more thing: What could be a solution for VrayProxies? I guess the only solution is to redirect the path to the new location for each proxy.

 

Thanks again,

 

Guido.

[Nils Norgren]

Hey Nils, Nice to talk to you. I think I saw you last year at Vismasters. Hope to see you this year too!

 

About your solution (thanks BTW!), I don't get why you get into "configure user paths" and add, manually, all the paths to all the locations where you have items loaded, when you may do the same thing in the asset tracker. This info remains with the scene no matter where you open it (if I'm not mistaken).

Is it, what you are using, a long run solution as opposed to the asset tracker?

We actually do not move projects regularly. This is just an exception.

 

One more thing: What could be a solution for VrayProxies? I guess the only solution is to redirect the path to the new location for each proxy.

 

 

Hi Guido, Good to talk to you, I will see you at Siggraph, "Configure User Paths" is a time saver for us because of 2 main reasons, we use a pre-determined list to set our "Projects" (which loads a .mxp file from the root directory of a specific project) this way, when we hit the render button, the default location for output is the project's 2d/Renders/ folder, this is true for loading maps, opening scenes, cutting down on time spent navigating around the server. The other benefit is that items that each have an "Absolute" path to a location on the server can have either a "Relative" path or no path at all, a bitmap called "Concrete" will be found in the the project's "Maps" directory.

 

We have a "Seed" project folder structure which includes a ".mxp" file that is generic, when a new project is started, a copy of the seed directory is made, changed to the name of the project, we update a lists of projects and update one line inside the .mxp file and we can launch the project and work relative to the folder structure.

 

From the artist's point of view, when he (or she) is given a project to work on, then launch a small maxscript utility, select the project from a drop down list, hit a button and go. When they go File->Open they will be in the "Scenes" directory of the project.

 

It sounds much more convoluted than it is I promise!

 

See you at Siggraph.

 

-Nils

[Lupaz]

Hey Nils,

I was so into everyday stuff that I forgot to answer.

What we are finally going to do is to use a script to change all texture maps paths, and manually change vray proxy's. This will do it for this time.

For the long run, your solution seems to be a good one. I guess I'll have to think a custom version for our structure.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Guido